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"Cannibal Cop" Jury Won't Feast Their Eyes On Cannibal Torture Porn
By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 4, 2013
Modified Mar 4, 2013
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By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 4, 2013
Modified Mar 4, 2013
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FBI analysis of a computer belonging to Gilberto Valle—a former NYPD officer on trial for allegedly plotting to kidnap, torture, and devour unsuspecting women—turned up dozens of ghastly snuff porn images. Prosecutors had wanted to show the jury 34 exhibits of the worst images, which appeared to depict "murdered and mutilated women in scenes related to cannibalism." But jurors won't be forced to view the images, after the judge ruled that there's no way to know for sure that Valle ever saw them.
We know that Valle frequented extreme-sex-fetish sites like DarkFetish.net, where he engaged in gruesome online chats about what he allegedly planned to do to his victims. And while there's no dispute that the graphic images were on his computer, U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe ruled today that "what we don't have is proof that he ever saw the images here." Valle's defense lawyers argued, successfully, that the images may have been saved to his computer automatically without him ever seeing them.
The jury was, however, shown a "video of a screaming woman being cooked alive over an open flame and other disturbing images from websites devoted to torturing and eating women," as the Post puts it. So there's that. And screenshots of Valle's Internet searches about cannibalism, including such queries as "how to tie up a girl," and ''human meat recipes," were also admitted into evidence. According to prosecutors, Valle also searched for articles concerning the rape and murder of a young woman and others about a 15-year-old girl who was kidnapped and murdered in California, NBC New York reports.
Meanwhile, Valle's fantasy-cannibal chat buddy Moody Blues has been released on bail after being charged with conspiracy and possession of kiddie porn. A "weepy, shaking" Dale Bolinger, 57, told reporters camped outside his home, "None of this is real. It is all fantasy. I’m an a--hole. I’m an idiot. It was my stupidity, because I went and put stupid things online, thinking that it was funny.”
Investigators say Bolinger gave Valle copious advice on how to be a cannibal, including a recipe for “haggis” made out of human lungs and stomach. He also allegedly encouraged Valle to kill his victims slowly. “I think of it as eating her to death,” Bolinger, using his screen name Moody Blues, wrote. “The meat isn’t quite like pork, but very meaty...I’ve eaten a black woman and a white person." But Bolinger insists he never met Valle and, no matter what Moody Blues said, he's never dined on human flesh.
Tagged
cannibal cop
gilberto valle
nypd
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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